Two Bills 中译

Two Bills

When Bill Clinton and Bill Gates played golf on Martha’s Vineyard a few years ago, they didn’t click. The President gave Gates a heavy dose of the Clinton treatment, oozing charm and seeking emotional common ground in the fact that both had recently lost their mothers. Clinton must have been disappointed by the cool response of Gates, who saw the subject as unduly personal. Gates, for his part, was put off that Clinton didn’t engage him on his favorite topic, technology. When the golfing ended, the two men went their separate ways. Gates didn’t take sides in the Clinton-Dole election a couple of years later. Clinton let his Justice Department pursue a potentially devastating antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft.

It’s not hard to see why these two larger-than-life figures – one is the world’s most powerful man, one the richest – didn’t become fast friends: the two Bills are as different as the two ends of the baby-boom generation they represent. Clinton, who entered college in 1964, is dripping with Sixties values: a John F. Kennedy-style belief in public service as a calling; an Age-of-Aquarius focus on emotional connection; and a countercultural streak of sex, drugs, and rock’ n’ roll. Gates, who came of age in the 1970s, has a Watergate-year detachment from politics, a mind-set more me-generation than “love-in”, and a passion for the great revolutionary force of his own decade: the personal computer.

But Clinton and Gates are remarkably alike in other ways, particularly in their flaws. Both have almost limitless drive and self-absorption and a willingness to push the rules to the edge – or pass it – to get what they want. When called to account, both have been dismissive of the legal process and have had a strained relationship with the truth. These qualities have landed both men in similar binds: Clinton is waiting to hear if he will be removed from office; Gates is fending off the Justice Department’s effort to rein in, or even carve up, Microsoft. Their flaws will take center this week, as both men mount defenses in their respective trials. 

Both men found their callings early. Clinton was elected a senator at Boys Nation at 16. On a Washington field trip that year, he shook hands with President Kennedy – an iconic moment captured in a photo. After Yale Law School and a Rhodes scholarship, Clinton, at 32, became governor of Arkansas. The single-minded rise to political power is a timeless story, but Clinton’s came with the distinctive trappings of his era: The scruffy beard and antiwar protests while at Oxford, the experimentation with pot, the civil rights movement sensibility and the feminist wife who kept her name – at least initially.

两个比尔

几年前，比尔·克林顿和比尔·盖茨在马撒葡萄园打了一场高尔夫球，两人相处不那么融洽。克林顿总统以自己惯用的热烈的待人接物方式对待盖茨，满脸魅力，笑容可掬。因为两人都新近丧母，所以他满以为能在两人之间找到共同语言。克林顿结果肯定是大失所望，因为盖茨反应冷淡，认为这一话题纯属个人私事，不宜谈论。盖茨也满心不快，因为克林顿没有让他谈自己最喜欢的话题——科技。高尔夫球打完，两人分道扬镳。几年后克林顿和多尔竞争总统职位，盖茨没有支持任何一方。而克林顿听任司法部对微软公司提出反垄断诉讼——这对微软公司可能是一场毁灭性的打击。

不难看出这两位带有传奇色彩的人物——世界上最有权者和最有钱者——为什么没有成为密友。因为两个比尔禀性大不一样，他们分别代表了战后生育高峰首尾两端出生的这一代人。克林顿1964年进大学，满脑子浸透了60年代的价值观念：他的身上既有约翰·肯尼迪式的以服务大众为己任的信念，也有大同时代的人所特有情感专注，同时还带有纵欲、吸毒、迷恋摇滚乐之类反文化的个人特性。盖茨70年代长大成人，具有水门事件年代的人对政治冷漠超然的特点，其心态更接近”惟我的一代”，而不是颓废派；他热衷于个人电脑，将其视为自己这十年的一种极具革命性的动力。

但在其他一些方面，克林顿与盖茨却明显地相似，尤其是在两人的缺点方面。两人却有无穷的干劲和自我专注，为了得到自己想要的东西，置各种条规于不顾，或越过条规。当要求他们对自己的所作所为进行解释时，两人都蔑视法律程序，歪曲事实。这些特点使两人陷入了相似的困境：克林顿正在听候最后的判决，不知会不会遭到弹劾；而盖茨正在设法招架司法部对微软公司的控制，乃至肢解。两人的这些缺点本周会格外引人注目，因为他们将在各自的案件中为自己辩护。

两人都少年得志。克林顿16岁时就被选为”少年国会”的领袖。那年他到华盛顿进行校外考察，曾跟肯尼迪总统握过手——这一具有象征意义的时刻被摄人了镜头。从耶鲁大学法院毕业，获得罗兹奖学金之后，32岁的克林顿成为阿肯色州州长。一心从政而获取政权者是一个永恒的话题。然而，克林顿的平步青云则明显地带有当时那个时代的印记：在牛津，他留着乱蓬蓬的胡须，他参加反战抗议活动，他体验过吸大麻的滋味，他对民权运动很敏感，娶了一位主张男女平等的妻子，婚后仍保留闺名——至少最初如此。

（许建平 译）